Strategies
This unit is designed to last four weeks. It is aimed at third graders, but can be adapted for lower and upper elementary grades. It will be taught during my self-contained language arts class for 75 minutes each day. I will begin the unit by having students locate each country of origin on a large world map. I will read aloud one Cinderella version at the beginning of the week, and use it to accomplish several classroom activities throughout the week. There are opportunities for students to work as a whole class, in small groups, with partners, and individually. Except for reading the story on Monday, all other activities can be done in any particular order. The activities are designed to reinforce my three main objectives of the unit: elements of a story, attributes of a fairy tale, and cultural influence on a story.
In small groups, students will respond to each story with a set of questions related to the attributes of a fairy tale. They will independently write a poem about each story from an entirely different point of view, such as another character or inanimate object. A structure poem will be used to make it easier to conceptualize such an abstract concept. Students will recognize and match the story elements (setting, plot, characters, problem, and solution) to each of the three Cinderella versions. Several guests will be invited to share their expertise on each story's country of origin (Iran, southern Africa, and China). These guests would come from the local universities, community, or parents in the school. Students will be expected to reflect on these visits in their journals. After reading each story, students will contrast each country's culture using a triple Venn diagram with unique facts that are revealed about that particular country's culture. The unit will culminate with students filling in the similarities of the three cultures on the triple Venn diagram. It is hoped, for example, that the influence of nature in all three stories will be obvious to students. For example, Settareh enjoys the call of a turtledove in the pomegranate tree in The Persian Cinderella. Yeh-Shen loves the company of a fish in the pond in Yeh-Shen, A Cinderella Story from China. Nyasha was happy to tend her small garden plot of vegetables in Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters. Students will also write their own version of the Cinderella story set in an entirely different culture, American. It will be fun to see how they adapt the story elements, attributes of a fairy tale, and cultural norms to their Cinderella story. "Children incorporate ideas from books they have read (or heard) into the writing of their own stories." 25 This is the reading/writing connection.
Perhaps students will want to explore other topics of interest as they come up in the stories. For example, they could research millet as mentioned in Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters, or the Iranian New Year as mentioned in The Persian Cinderella, or the cave dwellers of ancient China as mentioned in Yeh-Shen.
I plan to have several versions of the Cinderella story available in our classroom reading center so students can enjoy those during silent reading times. Some versions I want to provide are The Gift of the Crocodile, The Korean Cinderella, The Maiden and the Fish, The Egyptian Cinderella, and others.
Finally, I realize that the Cinderella story is not often used in the third grade classroom these days, but I believe it is the perfect story for teaching concept of story, attributes of a fairy tale, and cultural influence on a story. Besides, students will enjoy it!
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